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Jay Hunter-Darling
Appearance Long pink hair. Light grey eyes. Those are Jay's defining characteristics. He always tries to be the most noticeable person in the room and half of the time, it works, and it's not just because his voice is loud and deep – his genetics have done him well, for an attention-seeking class clown. Long and lanky at 6'5" (well over the point where he has to duck under door frames) with his bleached then brightly dyed hair, his appearance alone marks him as a town character. He isn't particularly brawny or muscly but he is lean, probably helped only by his skateboarding and enthusiasm for adventure. Due to his height and having short friends, or perhaps his laid-back, carefree nature, Jay has a slouch that will probably result in a bad back in later life. Even so, he's fairly attractive and, like his mom says, he has "good bone structure" like his father; a strong jawline and a pretty smile that he puts to good use. His attire is stereotypical grunge or "skater" with beanie hats, acid-washed denim jackets and sweaters underneath. He wears one worn pair of black and white sneakers most often because he can't afford a new pair of Converse, but he does own hiking boots – though who doesn't in Verona? Often he carries his skateboard with him and it is as much an accessory as anything else: the design on it is worn out but it was clearly once a black and pink depiction of roses. Jay is pretty scarred up. He's had more than a few accidents while skateboarding before, resulting in knees that have been torn open and stitched up – he's quite self-conscious of them – and a whole variety of scrapes and bruises and friction burns that never quite healed properly. Right now he also has a fresh black eye from a recent fight with King, a damaged jaw that is already turning colours and a variety of purplish bruises on his stomach. He has one dorky tattoo of a quote from Battlestar Galactica on the back of his neck ("Sometimes, you have to roll a hard six,") that actually has fairly good lettering, and a conical flask of pink chemicals on his shoulder. Both were paid for and organised by his biological father on Jay's eighteenth birthday. Finally for piercings Jay has both of his ears pierced but wears a feather earring in only one on occasion; he has his nose pierced but is letting it heal out and has a tongue piercing. One could say that since his early teens, he's been channeling his inner anarchist. Personality In four (and a bit) words: laid-back, cheerful, smart, dreamer. Jay is a stereotypical rebel, so much so that it almost seems forced. He cares about freedom and creativity and expressing oneself openly and all that jazz, and usually tries to do things for the movements he is interested in: signing anti-animal cruelty petitions, taking part in equal rights parades in Seattle, socialist demonstrations and protests. He doesn't have many ideas regarding his own future, however, as he prefers to look at the 'big picture' of how the world will be at that time instead, hence he's more interested in fighting climate change than hunting for a job. Jay hopes, however, that he won't end up in retail – he'd rather travel the world and do volunteering work, saving the rainforest and helping people. Still, he doesn't quite understand that putting in momentous effort is necessary to get a reward at the end. He'll probably go into science. Happy to listen to anyone talk or rant at him (and a bit of a pushover in that way), Jay is content to let other people run his life. This isn't as bad as some might think: he tends to attract people with optimism and good cheer, and as he's gotten older, he's become a bit more headstrong – able to think for himself on moral choices like not following a girlfriend down a dark rabbit hole or avoiding going shoplifting with Scout because it's inherently wrong. Even his thoughts are happy-go-lucky now. Jay believes the best of people, even when repeatedly lied to or cheated or stolen from. Thus, he is naive in many ways. On to his interests: Jay is a total geek for sci-fi classics, especially the cheesy sort. Video games are fun for him but he's not as competitive as he should be, and on some occasions, he's let his friends win and smiled to himself when they were excited about the outcome. Heavily into all three sciences as a hobbyist and as a possible career path, it could be said that these are the only subjects that he actually tries in – or at least, their the only ones he shows his single-minded intellect in. Mostly it's because he enjoys experimenting with... stuff. In his defense, he's an active learner! Jay bases himself around being as different from his biological dad, Jamie Darling, as is possible. As a result he has a dislike for drugs and a fear of getting totally blackout drunk – or even going beyond tipsy, really. The thing is, though... he's probably more like him than he believes. While Jay prides himself on not being aggressive and hot-headed as he thinks his dad is, he's never backed down or disagreed with throwing the first punch at someone who insults his friends. He's loyal until the end. Eternally. History Jay lives in Copper Hill, but he didn't always. For his first seven years, he was raised in a single-parent family by his mother (Lillian "Lil" Hunter) and saw his biological father at most three times a year – at Christmas, at his birthdays, and at Halloween when he went trick or treating. His home used to be in New Town, the decrepit neighborhood that was mostly made up of old, weathered apartment buildings with little to do but run about wild in the streets, and of course, skate. He was a bit of a tearaway at that time, his friends being similarly poor with nothing to do but wander around outside and play pranks by ringing doorbells and so on. It was around this time when he met his best friend and platonic soulmate, Scout Presley: a girl who was like him, but always a little darker. Once they were equals, tagging surfaces with pens and penknives because they couldn't buy spray paint and complaining about their home lives. Neither of them got the attention they deserved, though Jay at least knew his mother loved him dearly – she was just busy. Things changed as his mother began a whirlwind romance with the chief of police, Harold Logan, who was a recent divorcee and a single father himself. She moved in with him and married him in a move that was considered hasty by, well, everyone on either side of the family, and it was Jay that was looked on with the most pity: a gold-digger for a mom, and a biological dad who was so wasted most of the time he forgot to send a birthday card? Jay never really understood why people thought his life must have been dreadful. It was actually pretty good, and although he acted out in school, it was undeniable that he was above-average in grades. It was more to do with the fact that "you can take the kid out of New Town, but you can't take New Town out of the Kid", and he still hung out with the same people, though admittedly he had more interaction with richer folks. As he grew into a teenager, and his biological dad (possibly out of jealousy) wanted to be come a bigger part in his son's life, Jay's relationship with him grew even more tumultuous. He has fought and ranted at his father, even though Jamie never fought back and was already half-defeated, and repeated the insults that his mother used often when she was speaking about him. That's not to say that Lillian Hunter-Logan was innocent – Jay argued with her more than once over her subtle alcoholism and at this point is closer to his step-father than he is her, enough to do well in school to make him proud. Even if he's flunking English, Harold Logan is proud of him. But so is Jamie Darling, Jay just doesn't want ''him to be. Still, Jay has mellowed out his anger since his early teenage years and has since become a recognizable figure in the social sphere of his high school with friends ranging on all sides of the social spectrum, from Scout Presley (still) to Alice Malone. But he has enemies, though few and far between: people who don't like him include Jade Taylor, an ex-girlfriend, and Richard King, who insulted Scout to the point that not long ago Jay was bound to defend her honor. After Sunday's strange solar eclipse, things have been... strange. Superpower ''Teleportation is Jay Hunter-Darling's power: the ability to bend the laws of physics to travel from one spot to another instantaneously, with a range almost as big as Verona. Abilities Simply put, Jay can rapidly transport himself and one other person (for now) through space to another location entirely. It is as quick as a flash, and even if something is already in the process of moving towards him to hit him, like a fist or a bullet, it will pass easily through where he was. For now, Jay still gets disoriented by his abilities to a point, though he is rapidly getting used to it and will be able to adjust easily to a change in location in a fight soon enough. There is no limit to what he can teleport to, though for obvious reasons it seems to be limited and he will never be able to accidentally teleport himself inside a wall, thus killing himself. Soon, Jay will be able to think of a ''person ''and teleport to them rather than their surroundings, which will make passing messages and warnings much easier. Drawbacks Obviously it has a limited range. Jay can only teleport in a radius which is about as big as Verona (minus outlying areas like Everett's house), and it has a brief period where he cannot teleport again – at least a minute or two, though more like five for it to be completely safe. Naturally due to the almost-violent nature of his ability to rip through space and end up somewhere else, it is more noticeably draining than other powers: he can only teleport three times, roughly, before endangering himself. By that point, a nosebleed will have already started and the migraine set in. Furthermore, it seems that Jay's power has a strenuous effect on his body, too, damaging blood capillaries and doing unknown damage to himself. Category:Character Category:Act One